A day in the life of a business owner

“There’s so much you can learn by listening to other successful people”

Director at Clapham & Leightons Opticians in Totton, Nick Clapham, talks OT through a working day that starts with moments of peace and quiet and ends with a gym session and a homemade pad Thai

4 min read

Nick Clapham

Lucy Miller

07 December 2024

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Nick Clapham, director at Clapham & Leightons Opticians in Totton, talks OT through his day – from morning caffeine fix to evening archery and Italian language practice.

06:30

nickclapham

Name:Nick Clapham

Occupation:Director, Clapham & Leightons Opticians

Location:Totton

Business owner since:2018

My alarm is set for 6.30am. The morning is really the only part of my day that is structured. With the days usually being so chaotic, it’s nice to have a relaxed hour to myself. I try and start the day with some light exercise – usually a quick yoga or stretch routine before getting ready for work. If the weather is good, I’ll go for a short walk to a local coffee shop for my morning caffeine fix.

08:00

I usually arrive at work around 8am. My first task is to eat breakfast, which I prepare the night before and bring with me as I don’t like to eat too early. I use this time to get through any admin and check emails.

I’ve got a really great team around me who make sure that everything is set up and ready for the day without too much input from me. In saying that, something I want to work on is a morning huddle with the team – just a quick five to 10-minute meeting to run through the results from the previous day and look at the clinics for the coming day.

11:00

The team is great at ensuring that the dispensing diaries are well organised, and booking appointments for repairs and collections around potential dispensing opportunities from eye exams. But to butcher a quote, ‘the best laid plans often go awry.’ I always keep an open mind to the day as it unfolds, making sure I am adaptable to what comes my way.

14:00

I usually have lunch at around 2pm. I’m pretty good at making sure I don’t work during my lunch break – it’s great to just switch off for half an hour and clear my mind. If the weather permits, I’ll sit in a park and eat lunch in the sun.

14:45

I’m usually back from lunch just as the first eye exam of the afternoon is wrapping up, so it’s usually straight back down to business. If there is no dispensing opportunity, I’ll make a start on processing orders from the morning clinics. I avoid an afternoon slump by watching what I eat to keep my energy levels up and avoid a crash.

16:00

I try and set aside an hour once a week where I can take myself upstairs away from the shop floor and make a dent in business tasks. This is one area of my working life where the merger with Leightons has proven invaluable. Having a team of people at head office that look after marketing, HR, accounting and all the other tasks of business ownership has given me back more time to spend with clients.

17:30

Running a busy business means that there is rarely a day that I finish at 5.30pm, when the practice closes.

The team is great at rallying around to tidy up loose ends. But I actually like having a little time alone, with some peace and quiet to finish off any outstanding tasks and decompress after a busy day. I try never to think about work once I’m at home, so this time is really important to me to get stuff done.

18:30

I try to get to the gym for an hour after work, two or three times a week. I also took up archery as a hobby a year or two ago, so I try and fit in an evening or two of practice every week.

Having an Italian grandmother, I’ve always wanted to learn the language, so I need to make a better effort to fit that in too.

To unwind I listen to...

The Diary of a CEO podcast

19:30

I am terrible at meal planning and food shopping, so I normally have no idea what I’m going to eat until I think about it on the drive home. But I enjoy cooking and have a few favourite meals, so there are some regulars. I make a pretty good pad Thai.

I enjoy listening to podcasts. In the running of a business, there’s so much you can learn by listening to other successful people – whether in business, sports, or any other field. I always try to be open minded and look for areas where things can be adopted, adapted, and improved on.

My fantasy practice...

If I had an unlimited practice budget, I would…

Employ a world class barista. People come to an optometry practice with the expectation of having a great eye exam and buying great glasses, so it’s not enough to just deliver on this if you really want to stand out from the crowd.

In order to truly impress clients, and get them raving about you to their family and friends, you need to constantly and consistently wow them in unexpected ways. So often now, whether in the optical industry or any other, people are so used to experiencing a relatively poor standard of service and quality that they truly value it when you go above and beyond. And what better place to start than serving them the best cup of coffee in town?

If I was going to invent a piece of technology to help me solve one issue in practice, it would be…

Some kind of universal translator so that we could more easily understand what exactly it is that patients mean: ‘My new glasses don’t seem right. My vision is clear, but things just seem a bit… you know!’

Nope, I really have no idea. But let me just grab this little device, and we’ll clear things up straightway.

The very first change I would make to the optometry profession would be…

To completely rethink how the profession is regulated, funded and utilised within the healthcare industry.

I would first fix the woefully inadequate GOS funding. I think we are all more than aware of the atrocious state of NHS funding and the limitations this places on us as clinicians in delivering the highest standards of care possible. I don’t have all the answers, but let’s start with an easy fix and make the GOS sight test funding a contribution towards an eye exam, as we do with spectacles, giving patients and practitioners alike the freedom to choose what is right for them, without having to go as far as abandoning NHS care altogether.

It strikes me that the Opticians Act is no longer fit for purpose and needs a total overhaul. Relying on a document to govern the supply and sale of spectacles and contact lenses that pre-dates the internet is pretty crazy, and does little to protect the general public – while simultaneously handicapping the entire profession.

I also think that optometrists should be recognised and utilised far more by the broader healthcare sector. We are far better placed to deal with any number of clinical issues than GPs or eye hospital departments, freeing them up to concentrate on the more urgent cases. But it would have to start with proper funding to justify the business decision to divert clinical time away from routine eye examinations and the potential of dispensing eyewear that comes with it.

If I could be visited in practice by one influential person from history, it would be…

Steve Jobs. Love him or hate him, you can’t dispute the fact that he managed to take the humble mobile phone and completely reinvent it – turning a boring piece of plastic into one of the most desirable objects ever created. I’d love to get his insight into the optical industry and how he would reinvent it to make eyewear something that people desire, rather than it often being a grudge purchase.

If I could close the practice for a week without it having any impact at all, I would spend the week…

Trying to work out what incredible piece of magic I had just discovered, and figuring out a way to keep doing it.

My wildest ambition for my practice is…

My grandfather opened his first practice in 1970, so for the business to still be going strong in another 54 years would be pretty amazing.